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Wednesday, May 23, 2018

My new lake community has a lovely group of women called the Lady Lakers who meet once a month for fellowship and also to coordinate good works for the community -- like yard sales and concerts and 5k runs and donations to the local school and so much more!

This past weekend we all gathered to learn how to weave pine needle baskets.

Lady Lakers!

Friends, as with many primitive arts, this is so much harder than it looks! We started with walnut pieces for the center... and clumps of cleaned and boiled longleaf pine needles. (You have to prep the pine needles first by using fingernails or scissors to remove the bark-y cap on the end.) We used needles and waxed thread to start wrapping the straw around the walnut. We did our best to follow instructor Jane's every tip and direction. (Jane learned at John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina... totally on my bucket list to spend a week up there!)

Some of us (me!) put in way more stitches than necessary attaching the first layer of pine needles to the walnut, and that kind of threw off the stitching design. Some of us (me!) realized pretty quickly that pine needle basketry was not our "thing." (Maybe it's my left-handedness? It just felt too... something. Probably I'll like it better the next time I try. :)

the bottom of a basket(that will never be completed)

But others of us (Grace!) took to it like fishermen takes to the water at 5 am on our lake... here's Grace's finished basket. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Jane's baskets

As for me, I bought a finished basket from Jane instead. :)

I'll be donating it back to the Lady Lakers' silent auction in the fall. Now that we all know how labor-intensive it is to make the darn things, I know everyone will want one -- not only will it be a beautiful place for cookies or crackers or other sweet treats, but what a fabulous conversation piece!

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Last week it was my pleasure to visit with gifted students in Butler County, Alabama. Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of teacher Lori Brown, they'd all read LEAVING GEE'S BEND -- which is appropriate, as Butler County is right next door to Wilcox County (where Gee's Bend is located).

We had a lovely time talking books and writing, and it was fun to sign books for these eager young readers and writers. Thank you, Lori, and Butler County for supporting school visits and for inviting me to share my work with your students!

In other news, I will be traveling to Gee's Bend in July as part of Alabama Folklife Association quilting programming (you can register, too!) ... and I just might bring home a quilt! Yes, Mary Ann Pettway is making one for me, and maybe it will be ready... Fingers crossed!

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Slowly, slowly I am catching up here at Live Your Poem. Today I want to share about our event at Poet's House, which happened April 21 in Manhattan.

This event was set up by Charles Waters, who is a regular at Poet's House -- and of course everyone there loves him!

It's a beautiful building near Battery Park with all sorts of poetry memorabilia... and of course the 70,000 volume collection of poetry books. :)

We presented on CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR?, and the amazing staff put together a "hair" craft, much like Sean and Selina's craft for PEN World Voice, though there was no prior discussion about it, so it was just a happy coincidence. The kids really seemed to enjoy it! We loved taking

craft station!

pics of the kids with their happy creations (see below). We also read poems from the book and answered a few questions from the audience. It was fun to give shout-outs to our editor Carol Hinz and one of the illustrators Selina Alko, who were in the audience.

Also in the audience were three of my guys, though two of them were sick! You can probably tell which ones from the picture. :)

Paul (sick), Andrew (not sick), Eric (sick)

And here's the reason for the book and why do these things:

Aren't they wonderful?!

"Back off, I'm a poet."

Finally, here's a pic of me with a poetry tote gifted me by dear friend Robyn Hood Black. Kind of the perfect accessory in New York City during National Poetry Month, yes? :)

So many thanks to all involved! And readers, next time you are in New York City, be sure to visit Poet's House. It's all kinds of inspiring. I know you're going to love it!

Friday, May 18, 2018

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Rebecca at Sloth Reads for Roundup.

Around these parts, spring has quickly morphed into blazing summer. It's all good, though! We've enjoyed several sightings of your nearest neighbors -- a pair of bald eagles! I've been writing, of course... and working on last-call edits for two forthcoming picture books. (Click to see a sneak peek of those covers!) I've also been spending as much time with our son as possible -- he's a graduating high school senior, and the day after graduation he will leave to work as a camp counselor for the summer:

BOOM! Empty nest!

No, I am not ready. Super excited for him and all that awaits, but wow. This raising-kids thing went by terribly fast! Sigh. Good thing I've got books (and an awfully sweet husband) to keep me company.

With that in mind, today I'd like to share a book I checked out from the library and then decided to purchase, because I love it so much: THE HORSE'S HAIKU by Michael J. Rosen, illustrated by Stan Fellows, brought to us by Candlewick Press.

I love horses. I love books about horses. And this one is certainly a celebration of our equine friends. So many of my most favorite moments of horse-watching are recorded here:

one foal nods, slicing

the fog shared breaths - the mare

nods in agreement

I have LOVED watching horses speak to one another on cold fog-breathy mornings! It feels so intimate, so reverential.

And how 'bout this one, about the magic of a horse emerging from a dust roll:

wriggling in the dirt,

dust clouds of kicking hooves, then --

poof! -- horse standing there

There are haiku about shadows and hoofprints and that lip-flutter way horses take a treat from your palm. About water dribbling from the horse's mouth and those pesky horseflies.

Even horse-chores are made beautiful, as in this one about cleaning a horse's hooves:

front leg half-folded

horse's hoof rests in your palm

weightless as prayer

And what about that moment during a gallop (or jump) when all for hooves are in the air at once?

time, too, must stretch as

rear hooves launch from earth.. and then

front hooves ground again

The final one I'd like to share is about that relationship between horse and rider:

right food slid in place,

heels pressed down in both stirrups-

trust is your seat belt

This is the perfect book for that horse-loving person in your life. I've actually written quite a lot of poems about horses and horse-love, so I thought I'd use this opportunity to share a couple with you today:

Also present was our editor and mother o' the book Carol Hinz... and a new friend: photo-illustrator Shelley Rotner. I would love to collaborate with Shelley at some point! Meanwhile, she was kind enough to take these shots of Team CITYH (CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR?):

I do hope at some point to meet some of my other co-creators: Stephanie Graegin, illustrator of DON'T FEED THE BOY; Anna Wadham, illustrator of both DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST and WHEN THE SUN SHINES ON ANTARCTICA; Mique Moriuchi, illustrator of FRESH DELICIOUS; Thea Baker, illustrator of forthcoming LOVE, AGNES (October 2018); John Holyfield, illustrator of forthcoming MEET MISS FANCY (January 2019).

Monday, May 14, 2018

I'm still playing catch-up here at Live Your Poem, and today I'm excited to share about the school visits Charles Waters and I had last month in Manhattan.

the superfun SPONGEBOB stage

I was so happy Paul was able to join me on this trip -- he and I have a long history of enjoying New York City together! This time we stayed at Mansfield Hotel (near the library), thanks to a special deal from Travelzoo. We loved it! It was quiet and in such a convenient location. Unfortunately Paul got sick on our trip... and it was a bit colder than we would have liked... but we still had fun. Part of that fun included our younger sons who came in mid-week (one of whom also got sick, unfortunately)... of course we had to see SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS on Broadway. :) We also saw THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, which had us laughing pretty much start to finish.

Other fun stops included the Empire State Building first thing in the morning -- which was so, so lovely and inspiring! -- and a carriage ride around Central Park. We joined Charles at Champs Diner, one of his favorite all-vegan restaurants and met him for a walk along the High Line and also a peek inside the Langston Hughes house, now home of i, too arts collective. One morning when it was raining I got several new book ideas at National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey. Good times!

Our first school visit was another picturesque location... PS 276 Battery Park School. Those kids enjoy a view of Lady Liberty outside the library window every single day! Basia Tov and the kids made us feel so very welcome... and many of them showed up later in the week for our big shin-dig at Poets House. (more on this next post!)

Irene Latham, Basia Tov, Charles Waters

Next we visited PS 15 in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, thanks to Michele Wiseman of Meet the Writers, where we met another group of of great kids and educators! We loved working with Michele and appreciate so much the work she does to bring authors into schools. Both Charles and I believe we'd have gotten to writing a lot sooner if we'd been able to meet an author when we were going to school. Here we are in the library:

S. Matz, Charles Waters, Irene Latham, Michele Wiseman

Our final school visit was arranged through Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn: the Co-op School: Joyful Learning in Brooklyn. We loved seeing all the art on the walls at this school, and the kids asked some fabulous questions. What fun! Thanks to all involved at all these schools.

If you haven't seen it yet, it's a book that's kind of like an inspiration game... one children's book writer or illustrator sending a prompt to another children's book writer or illustrator. I was particularly drawn to the illustrative parts. In fact, probably

“Try to think of an abstract idea.
For instance, you might choose “joy” or “hunger” or
“stupidity.” Now imagine that abstraction as a character It can
look like a person, an animal, or a creature of your own invention.
Once you've got the character in your head, set it in motion. Make it
DO something. “Joy” might ride a bicycle “Hunger” might go to
the movies. “Stupidity” might dig a hole Tell me the story of
what happens.

Write a list of ten things you are NOT
(not an astronaut, a perfectionist, a wool spinner, a butterfly, a
name-caller). Then pick your favorite lines and develop, or
embellish, them, adding metaphors, more description, whatever you
like.

*Because I love "identity" writing prompts -- and am constantly looking for new ones since working with readers of CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR? -- this is the one I decided to tackle right away!

- Irene Latham
Some notes about the poem: "Irene" actually means peace -- and of course the olive tree is a symbol of peace.
I struggled a while with a descriptor for the olive tree, and when I found "knotted" it felt like a miracle... another "not" for the poem!
It's interesting to me that I ended up starting my poem with the last item on my list. It makes me wonder what my poem might have been if I'd written 20 or 30 things on my list instead... how deep might I have gone into my identity? Something to try another day!

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Last month it was my honor to be invited as a featured artist at Tallahassee's Word of South literary and music festival held at Cascades Park.

What a beautiful venue! And what a well-run event! I wouldn't have been there if not for dear poet-friend Jan Annino's recommendation to the committee... thank you, Jan! It was so lovely to see you. :)

Cascades Park (Tallahassee, FL)

The weather was perfect, and I wish I could have spent more time enjoying the city -- both my parents graduated from FSU -- in fact, it's where they met. (In a home economics class where the instructor asked a show of hands for people wanting big families... by the time the instructor got to "8 or more kids" my parents-to-be were the only students still holding their hands up. They went on to have five of us!)

The only hiccup of my trip was some car trouble, which turned out to be low oil. While I was trying to find a car shop, I noticed the I Museum of Florida History near by. I'd really like to check out at some point... next time!

me and my littlest sis!

The trip was especially lovely because it gave me an excuse to visit with my mother and her family. Because my adopted siblings are all school age, I made sure include in my plans a visit to their classrooms at Aucilla Christian Academy. I shared poems by me and others in celebration of National Poetry Month. Fun!

Mama's hair was wild!(Laura gave out all kindsof fun hair clips to readers.)

At the festival I was paired with Laura Freeman, author-illustrator of NATALIE'S HAIR WAS WILD. It's an adorable picture book, and Laura was simply lovely to work with! After our presentation we signed a bunch of books that were purchased by the Early Learning Coalition and gifted to attendees. That's right: kids got free books! Pretty awesome, right? I signed copies of FRESH DELICIOUS and CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR? The day was made even better because my mom and her family were in the audience. That doesn't happen all that often, so it was lovely to share the day with them.

I adore this festival! Karen Rowell and Ellen Ruffin and the whole team outdo themselves every single year.

This year it featured Dav Pilkey receiving the Medallion, which was so much fun! Librarians were running all around campus in their superhero capes. :) I particularly enjoyed learning about Dav's challenges as a student. I was also wow-ed by

me and Salina Yoon

Salina Yoon, with whom I happily snapped this selfie in the hallway before her amazing talk. :)

Salina shared about being a "recovering introvert" which had us all laughing. Then she shared how she was a quiet child, much like the Dennis character (who is a mime) in BE A FRIEND.

Salina put on her mime hat and gloves to read the story for us! Magic, I say. Salina also shared her spreadsheets on submissions and acceptances, and wow, was that inspiring! One reason Salina

has so many books is because she has an amazing work ethic. And how creative are her book projects?! She cites toys as a big inspiration for her work. I loved when she shared about how writing picture books was kind of a way to reinvent herself, after a year with the novelty books weren't selling. What a lucky development for children and readers everywhere!

Another thing I loved was hearing old friend and fellow Alabamian (and USM alum!) Ash Parson talk about tropes and archetypes. Love that lady! And it was so much fun to meet and present with new friend Leah Henderson, author of the middle grade novel ONE SHADOW ON THE WALL which happens to be the only current novel set in Senegal.

me and Leah Henderson

Leah and I have so much in common! We shared with attendees our experiences about writing across culture and gave tips on how to proceed, should one feel called to write a story not from one's experiences. It's not for the faint of heart! However... the most important thing any of can do is follow our hearts as we write. For some of us that may mean proceeding into dangerous territory. It helps to meet fellow travelers, I can tell you that!

One of the highlights for me was sharing a table with a bunch of Mississippi librarians who live and work outside Memphis, TN. These ladies were THE BEST! I'm so grateful. I hope to meet up with them again when I travel with a dear friend for a research trip to Graceland later this year.

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Words to Live By

"Err on the side of love." - my Mama

"Life isn't about finding yourself.Life is about creating yourself."- Anonymous

“Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love,and love what you write.The key word is love.You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.”- Ray Bradbury